One Sunday, after church, I asked my boys what they thought about the service. Christian said it was good, and that the sermon and that it had given him something to think about.
This was interesting in that we had a guest speaker. Of even greater interest was that both Tracy and I had delivered the same message on numerous occasions. At church. At camps. At youth group.
As someone who works with teens, this simply reinforced something I've long known.
Sometimes kids can only hear a message from someone other than their parents. This has probably been true since time immemorial. But there is a simple thing we can do to increase our chances of being heard.
Listen.
https://www.lifehack.org/277883/how-communicate-your-child-will-listen
There comes a point where we must transition from talking TO our kids to talking WITH our kids. Learning to listen during those conversations is the cornerstone of that transition.
And, in the process, we teach our children to become listeners as well.
Think about it.
Pastor Jason